Give Yourself a Break

I will hold myself to a standard of grace, not perfection. I will hold myself to a standard of grace, not perfection.

For the Parent::Battle Cry

The danger of a strong work-ethic, a desire to be excellent, and the hope you are setting a good example for your child can lead to you being very hard on yourself. The hope you are setting a good example for your child can lead to you being very hard on yourself. You don’t want people to see you “drop the ball” on anything. You feel like you have to be perfect in every area or else you fail at all of them. The problem is, perfection is not something that you can obtain. It’s always out of your grasp. Worse yet, when you do fail, you let it affect every other area of your life. You think your family doesn’t have any fallout when you fail? Think again. The true price in the pursuit of perfection is more than your life can bear. Give yourself a break. Show the people in your life that when you fail, you won’t give up, but you won’t let it break you either. Show the people in your life that when you fail, you won’t give up, but you won’t let it break you either.

For Your Son::Call to Arms

Ask this question: Do you think you need to be perfect?

You don’t. No one can be perfect. We all make mistakes and while we need to deal with the consequences of our mistakes, we don’t need to let them define us. We all make mistakes & while we need to deal with the consequences we don’t need to let them define us. Don’t beat yourself up when you make a mistake, instead ask yourself, “what can I learn from this?” Use your mistakes as teachers, not as labelers. Use your mistakes as teachers, not as labelers.

Weekend Activity

Play Jenga. The whole point of Jenga is that eventually one person will pull the block that brings the tower down. When you do, just rebuild the tower and play again. Explain that mistakes are a lot like the game. You make a mistake, there is a mess to clean up, then you start again.